1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to baby bottle holders and more specifically it relates to infant eye trainers and visually stimulating devices for a baby bottle.
Studies have shown that the most crucial developmental months for an infant is from birth to about six months. Muscles and senses are developing rapidly, and during that period, you want to make sure they are developing correctly. That is why it is important to keep the infant's eyes straight, while feeding them from a baby bottle. Often, most infants have nothing to focus their eyes on, so they look at the bottle. By doing this, both eyes naturally cross, due to the position the bottle is in. If the infant does this often enough, in those precious developing stages, there is a possibility that one or both eyes can be slightly off centered permanently.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous baby bottle holders have been provided in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,295,293 (Baclit), 4,320,883 (Bass), 5,083,732 (Akamine) and 5,129,610 (Campbell) all are illustrative of such art. While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,293 (Baclit, Paul S.), entitled "Nursing Bottle Holder," discloses a baby bottle holder including a main support member in the form of a shell which fits over the body of the infant when the infant is lying down. An upright bottle support removably mounted on the main support for mounting the bottle. This bottle support has a caricature thereon such as of an animal. A bottle carriage on the bottle support is pivoted between an active position in which an infant feeds, and an inactive position in which it is inclined away from the infant's face, and has a weight for moving it to an inactive position when the bottle is released. The bottle support includes a music box which is activated by the bottle carriage when the latter is moved to an inactive position. The main support while carrying the bottle support is demountably positionable on a pull-toy, such as a buggy which, together as a combination toy can be enjoyed by an older child.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,883 (Bass, Wayne E.), entitled "Positional Toy/Bottle Holder," discloses a positionable support for a baby bottle comprising interchangeable head members with openings representing the mouth of the characterization which the head represents. The opening contains a groove or channel for receiving and holding a resilient ring member which grasps and firmly holds a baby bottle. An extension arm supports the head member at a distance spaced from the base member. The extension arm, head and base member attachments are pivotable. The head member is removable from the extension arm pivot connection. A novel valve is included to prevent liquid from flowing from the nipple attached end of the baby bottle from the effect of gravity on the liquid therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,732 (Akamine, Horace S.), entitled "Flexible Baby Bottle Holding Animal," discloses an improved baby bottle holder, specifically for use in feeding and storing the baby's food and to facilitate the easy reach by the baby and for other functions. A single-piece flexible holding device has four major components, namely a multi-use clamp, a protective sheath cover which provides a protection for safe use, beauty, and is designed to bend with the movements of a flexible rod. This flexible rod is adopted from those in common desk lamps. Finally a flexible holding grip that can hold a bottle placed within it by flexibly spreading itself open upon insertion of the bottle and will hold bottles of a variety of widths. The grip has a parallel gap which allows it to adapt to various bottle designs. The device is advantageously built into an animal, such as a toy bear, with the grip and clamp in place of the bear's hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,610 (Campbell, Gregory A.), entitled "Gimballed Adjustable Holder for Nursing Bottle," discloses a gimballed adjustable holder for a nursing bottle comprised of a base assembly, a gimbal support which is vertically adjustable with respect to the base assembly and rotatable about the base and gimbal support pivot for use in various positions and locations, an inner gimbal and outer gimbal, which permits pivotal movement of the nursing bottle in order to compensate for movements of an infant during feeding. The bottle is held in place within the inner gimbal in a bottle support and secured via a bottle retention strap.